October 16, 2011

Uzma Engineering is Confident of Winning More Jobs

Uzma is upbeat about winning more jobs as it is the only Malaysian firm with the technology and equipment to carry out enhanced oil recovery

Kuala Lumpur: Integrated oil and gas service provider Uzma Bhd is confident of winning more jobs as it is the only local firm with the technology and equipment to carry out enhanced oil recovery (EOR), essentially services to squeeze out more oil from existing fields.

EOR is one of the areas in focus by national oil company Petronas currently, apart from looking for oil in new deepwater fields and smaller or marginal fields.

So far this year, its subsidiary Uzma Engineering Sdn Bhd has won RM370 million EOR contracts from Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd. In fact, Uzma managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Kamarul Redzuan Muhamed said the company is already in the forefront of EOR projects.

“We have done a few EOR projects, not only in Malaysia but also in Australia and Thailand. I don’t think there is any Malaysian companies doing such works on EOR. Uzma is probably the only local firm that has the technology and equipment to conduct EOR in oil fields,” he told Business Times in an interview.

Uzma, which started as a company that helped oil giants study and map out potential energy reserves, is also now involved in implementing the studies. Uzma was listed in July 2008 and like other companies, it was badly affected by the economic downturn that hit the world then.

“When Uzma was listed, it was a bad time as the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index at that time was below 1,000 points, while the oil price was at US$147 (RM461).

“Three months after listing, the price of oil went down all the way to US$40 (126) per barrel. That had a big impact on us negatively, especially in 2009 and 2010,” he said.

However, he said, the two-year period provided Uzma the time to rethink, reflect and evaluate.

“During that two years, we decided on the business of implementing what we study.

Kamarul Redzuan said what they did during the two years was to strategise, and successfully transformed the company. Previously known as a sub-surface company, Uzma is now also known as a well-services company in the upstream oil and gas industry.

On March 2, Uzma Engineering won a RM200 million deal to provide a low-pressure system for Petronas’ domestic upstream ope-rations and on July 26, it clinched a RM170 million contract to provide integrated equipment and services for an idle wells re-activiation project for Petronas Carigali.

Its core assets are uzmaPRES and uzmaWIRELINE. UzmaPRES is a low pressure system to revive idle wells while uzmaWIRELINE collects essential data for major oil wells and enhances the rate of oil recovery. Its other core businesses are geological and reservoir engineering services and drilling services.